2014 Austrian Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas has been voted as the Driver of the Weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix following his first ever front row start and podium finish.

Bottas received 41.7% of the vote – the lowest of any winner so far this season – to top the poll ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver climbed from ninth to second and took 15.1% of the cote.

For the second race in a row Sergio Perez took third place in the vote. Like Hamilton he also made an impressive climb through the field, gaining ten places to finish sixth.

However despite taking his third win of the year Nico Rosberg remains yet to win a Driver of the Weekend poll this season. He earned 8.9% of the vote in Austria.

1. Valtteri Bottas

Started: 2nd
Finished: 3rd

Williams looked strong all weekend and when Mercedes faltered in Q3 it looked set to be a battle for pole between Bottas and team mate Felipe Massa. Ultimately a small mistake from Bottas handed Massa the pole position, but nonetheless he lined up on the front row for the first time in his F1 career.

Nico Rosberg demoted him a place off the line but a brilliant exit from turn one allowed Bottas to reclaim the place before the cars reached turn two. Despite stopping a lap after his team mate a quick stop enabled Bottas to emerge ahead of Massa – but behind Rosberg, who’d jumped the pair of them.

Bottas took the fight to Rosberg when the Mercedes driver made a mistake in the middle of the race, but couldn’t make his way past the Mercedes and was ultimately jumped by the other car of Lewis Hamilton as a result of Williams’ cautious strategy. Third place was his first visit to the F1 podium, and his pace at the end showed Williams could have been more aggressive.

Brilliant qualifying, just missed out on pole because of his experienced team mate. Did not let things hang coming race day, defending from Rosberg into turn one, and taking back second in turn two. Had very good pace to keep Hamilton behind in his second stint and managed to finish well ahead of Massa. In the last few laps he was even the fastest car on track.PorscheF1 (@Xtwl)

Second on the grid, third in the race, super job. He was on it all weekend and only a small mistake in Q3 kept him off of pole, though that is not enough to take this award from him in my book.@GeeMac

2. Lewis Hamilton

Started: 9th
Finished: 2nd

Qualifying was again the weakness in Hamilton’s weekend. Four tenths up by the second sector on his first run in Q3, he threw it away with a mistake in the penultimte corner, and compounded his error by spinning again on his final run.

But he regained much of the lost ground with a brilliant first lap. Having moved up from ninth to fifth a move on Fernando Alonso at the penultimate corner put the Mercedes driver into fourth as lap two began.

It was then a case of waiting for the pit-stops to pan out and following his second stop he slotted into second place behind team mate Rosberg. Hamilton then set about challenging Rosberg, but never got close enough have a real attack.

Yet despite taking 15% of the votes, few people left comments to explain why they had picked Hamilton as Driver of the Weekend, and several disagreed with the choice.

Gave it to Hamilton here. I just can’t ignore Hamilton fantastic first lap gains. Additionally, his reactivity when the situation called for it was really impressive.Paul (@Frankjaeger)

Out of the Mercedes drivers both made mistakes in qualifying but Hamilton made the bigger mistakes on Saturday, on race performance Hamilton was probably the better of the two but not by enough that would give him the edge over Rosberg for the whole weekend.@PJA

Starting on the contra strategy Perez hit the front when the leaders pitted and stayed there until Rosberg attacked, having been told not to waste time defending. A final stint on the Super Soft tyres allowed him to ease past Kevin Magnussen for sixth but Alonso was too far up the road.

Has to be Perez for me. He totally bounced back from a crash which cost him and his team dear points and fifteenth to sixth has to win it for me.Duncan Brokensha (@Broke84)

I do understand a first podium will allways tend to give drivers a DotW, especially since noone else was really that impressive. I do also understand recovering from a grid-penalty and climbing 9 positions with a car roughly equal to the direct competitors, finishing ahead of a respected teammate, gives you some votes. But I fail to understand how someone who royally screws his saturday and fails to even set a time through faults of his own, resulting in a race-finish at the lowest acceptable position given that car, gets any votes.

Why wasn´t Button in Canada´s top-3 of DotW then? Beating his teammate in quali and race and finishing higher than where the car belongs, that was quite likely a better weekend than what Ham showed in Austria.

@keithcollantine I know I’m not DaveD but I am of a similar opinion. For me, Rosberg should have been DOTW in Canada due to his supreme qualifying as well as race, adjusting his driving style to a car with only front brakes and a 160hp deficit and finish 2nd is mightily impressive. I know he got 2nd in the DOTW poll as well, but IMO he should’ve won.

@keithcollantine
No, to me I wouldn’t have given him a DOTW yet. But I know that my idea of driving is much more geared towards an on the edge driving style and I see Rosberg as a safer, more conservative driver. I just expected others to be more objective towards him, but I guess the majority of people either see it the same way as I do, or simply thought someone else was more deserving in each instance.

Has anyone else noticed that no matter what Rosberg does, he never gets close to driver of the weekend? He may win the WDC this year, but nobody will ever mistake his efforts for being Senna/Prost-like. He’s just at the right place, at the right time and had good luck so far.

@DaveD – People love seeing the underdog like our Aussie Dan get up in Canada so emotion like that along with some just voting for their favourite each race distorts these (Hell- I thought Dan was driver of the week in Austria………….. if he’d just had a better car…………. :)

If you spoke to Nico I am sure the 2014 WDC will not be too fussed if he doesn’t win any this year on this forum :) (Totally agree with your comments though)

Technically the best driver of the year might not be the DoTW in any individual race. If you were 2nd or 3rd best every weekend then chances are you were the best overall. I think i’ve voted for Rosberg once (Canada) but there hasn’t been a faultless weekend from him yet. There’s still time though. I voted for Magnussen this race but don’t begrudge Bottas his win – and like others I can’t really see the justification for Hamilton coming second considering two huge qualy mistakes effectively ruined his chances (great first lap notwithstanding).

“nobody will ever mistake his efforts for being Senna/Prost-like. He’s just at the right place, at the right time and had good luck so far.”

That’s one possible interpretation. But considering that people said exactly the same thing about Vettel (who did not win DOTW in 2011 until the 13th race of the season) it seems a lot more plausible that the explanation is anti-German bias. After all, Hamilton is “in the right place at the right time” this year as well, yet his massively superior car never weighs against him. He’s been either first or second in DOTW in five of the six races he’s completed.

I think it’s just as simple as Rosberg hasn’t done anything spectacular or special. Not once this year has he dominated a weekend… when he’s been quicker in the race, he hasn’t won, and when he’s won, he hasn’t been quicker in the race.

He hasn’t produced any awesome overtakes, or pulled off a great strategy, or nailed some top-class defensive driving… the only race he’s been eye-catchingly impressive at was Canada, but he was of course overshadowed by Ricciardo winning.

I’d get the accusations of bias/etc, if people could specifically point to why he should have won or podiumed in the DOTW at any given race.

Great season, great driving and overall deserves to be out in front… but no one votes for a DOTW just because he’s leading the championship.

And also the retirement isn’t his fault; it’s like an engine failure; there’s literally nothing the driver can do about it.
Tbh, the thing that springs to mind is Vettel at Korea, 2010: Exceptional qualifying, exceptional race and confidence in his abilities etc, then a failure that led to the end of his race.

I didn’t vote for HAM so I’m just speculating: But I think something was wrong with his car on that second off. The back end snapped around when he had barely touched the brakes and wasn’t even really turning yet. It just looked like a ghost from whatever brake issues he’s been having and it went wonky in that Q3 with no special help from Lewis to make it do so.
I think some people took that into account and then added the move through the field up to a 2nd place finish. As a HAM fan, I enjoyed the aggressive drive…but still gave my vote to Bottas. Had Williams gone for the win rather than a “podium/points” finish in their strategy…I think he could have won the race.

In those 10 minutes he could have done nine laps. He couldnt do a single one. And because of that, instead of passing Rosberg and the Williams, he only passed two Ferraris, a STR, a Red Bull and a Mclaren. He threw away a win because he couldnt complete a lap.

I personally voted Alonso as the DOTW as he really did exceptional, even by his standards I would say. I mean, he is pretty much the only person I would say who got the max in qualifying and the race.

– Hamilton: Messed up 2 laps in Q3 but had a great race
– Rosberg: Didn’t get the most out of qualifying and made several mistakes in the race
– Bottas: Should have gotten pole but messed up his last lap
– Massa: Bottas shows that more was possible out of the car in Q3 and a pretty average race IMO
– Perez: Didn’t get the max out of qualifying but had a wonderful race

That’s why I voted FA as my DOTW. 4th was the absolute max in quali considering the RBR and the Force Indias were quicker, and got 5th in the race, which was once again the max, and only 1.8 secs behind Massa in the Williams, which was amazing. Barely a foot wrong and barely a lap below the limit. Just my opinion BTW.

The guy wasn’t able to complete one timed lap in Q3 an. Makes literally no sense to even think about voting for him, for example his team-mate did much better in quali and won but isn’t even in the top-3. Anyone care to explain what made you vote for him in addition to what was 1/71th of the race (the first lap)?

The guy wasn’t able to complete one timed lap in Q3 which cost him no less than a race win and it was all his fault. Makes literally no sense to even think about voting for him, for example his team-mate did much better in quali and won but isn’t even in the top-3. Anyone care to explain what made you vote for him in addition to what was 1/71th of the race (the first lap)?

Funny how Rosberg never gets deserved credit when wins…
His qualify was screwed by Hamilton mistake, but he still managed the race perfectly, playing with Williams in the first stint than unleashing the pace only when matters.

Hamilton 2nd best driver of the weekend? Not really. 2 dumb mistakes in qualify cost him a reachable pole position.
His race start was great, sure, but after the first lap he was already on Rosberg’s tail but never had really the chance to close on him for the overtake.
He tried in the end, but nearly lost the car on the kerb. Not enough to be 2nd best driver of the weekend imho.

Every comment here so far on Lewis says he can’t be DotW because he screwed up Q3. That’s two mistakes in a flawless weekend, just as many as Rosberg (he should have got pole on his first attempt and he made an error during the race by doing an off track excursion while pulling away from Bottas). Compare this race to Rosberg’s one in Malaysia where it took him the whole race to catch up with Hamilton and you realise that Lewis first lap practically washes away his Q3 mistakes.

But other drivers made no mistakes over the whole weekend; Kvyat and Magnussen spring to mind.
Just because the Mercedes drivers are the only drivers in the hunt for a race win, it doesn’t mean that other drivers can perform to a higher level than them.

Just because the Mercedes drivers are the only drivers in the hunt for a race win, it doesn’t mean that other drivers can perform to a higher level than them.

Especially when both of them are driving rather prone to mistakes through the last weekends. I´d say Rosberg has had just the right amount of votes in this season´s DotW´s. I don´t think Ham should have considerably more, especially not when he finishes behind Ros through nothing but his own making.

Obviously a driver’s qualifying performance can have a huge effect on their race result, and therefore where they finish. To a lesser extent, what they do in practice can also have consequences for their race. That’s why it’s called Driver of the Weekend.